Cuomo’s Labor Day message: “Public employees unions must make sacrifices”

I have no idea how I missed this earlier this week, but I did. Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo penned an op-ed for the New York Daily News directed squarely at state workers. Using the recently published book The Man Who Saved New York City as an entry point, Cuomo compares the state’s current situation with New York City’s fiscal crisis in 1975.

His message to state employees is quite clear.

Famously tough labor leaders, like District Counsel 37 head Victor Gotbaum and Albert Shanker, president of the United Federation of Teachers, came to the rescue. The former agreed to shelve pay raises for municipal workers; the latter helped stave off bankruptcy by buying city bonds with pension funds.

In a time of great public need, public employees stepped up to the plate and took the long view. And their sacrifices paid off. New York City survived, stabilized and strengthened, and so did they. By rising to the occasion, public employees and their unions earned the respect and gratitude of all New Yorkers. They also left a legacy of selfless sacrifice that should never be forgotten.